Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe some aspects of the Northern Apennine/Corsica orogenic system, a classical and still-debated subject in the geology of the central Mediterranean. After a necessarily short historical outline, a general updated overview of the Northern Apennine and Corsica is presented. The results of recent research on metamorphic units representative of the former continental margins have been used to constrain some key events of the geological history of the Northern Apennine/Corsica orogenic system and its relationship with the western Alps. Many still-controversial topics are tackled in this paper, which calls for further data and studies. In particular, the early stages of the oceanic convergence recorded by the Ligurian units of the Apennine and by Corsican ophiolites need refinement of structural and chronological data sets. Similarly, the deep structure of the inner Northern Apennine is far from being well explored; nevertheless, three crustal-scale cross-sections across the Northern Apennine are presented to show differences in the crustal and near-surface architecture at the orogen scale and to discuss some points of the Apennine history, namely the relationships between shortening in the external and exhumation/extension in the internal domains, from the Oligocene onward.